Australia’s First Dingo

The low genetic diversity observed in dingoes indicates that present-day populations might be derived from an isolated colonisation event that involved just a single pregnant female. Credit: Sam Fraser-Smith/Wikimedia Commons

By Joanne Wright & David Lambert

Genetic analyses suggest that in a single colonising event the dingo reached Australia during the
Holocene. Since rising seas had already inundated the land bridge connecting Australia to South-East Asia, the dingo must have been accompanying an ancient human sailor.